Visit England

5th June 2013

Discovering Chatsworth House in the Peak District, punting in Cambridge, chilling on Primrose Hill, walking in the Cotswolds and wine tasting at an East Anglian vineyard. These are some just some of my favourite experiences in England. While I absolutely love travelling abroad and exploring different countries, sometimes there's just no place like home. That's why I was delighted when the national tourism board asked me to help them inspire people to take more holidays in England.

Visit England wanted to put together a list of 101 things to do before you go abroad. They asked people to nominate their favourite things to see and do in England and had such an enormous response that they assembled a crack team to select the cream of the crop.

So I joined Wallace & Gromit (yes!), Bill Oddie, Clemency Burton-Hill, Skye Gyngell and a Yeoman Warder from the Tower of London and got down to business. We each had our own entries to judge from the following categories; Food & Drink, History & Heritage, Arts & Culture, Health & Fitness, Wildlife & Nature and Because it’s Awesome.

Health & Fitness was my area and after plenty of deliberation, this is the bucket list I came up with (in no particular order):

* Bathe in the naturally warm waters of the Thermae Spa in Bath
* Climb Scafell Pike, England's highest mountain
* Cycle along the Northumberland Coast
* Take a walk past The White Horse at Uffington
* Mountain bike in Dalby Forest
* Ice skate in the Fens
* Walk the South West Coast Path
* Raft at the Lee Valley White Water Centre (a London 2012 venue)
* Walk on the roof of The O2 in London
* Swing through the trees at Sherwood Forest Pines
* Surf in Newquay
* Horseride in the New Forest
* Swim in the Serpentine in London's Hyde Park
* Rock climb in the Peak District
* Swim in the open air pools and falls of the Yorkshire Dales village of Grassington
* Canoe in the Wye Valley
* Walk the Coast to Coast Walk
* Walk the Pennine Way
* Pothole and cave in Ingleton in the Yorkshire Dales
* Walk the South Downs Way
* Mountain bike in Penrith
* Sail in Weymouth
* Bathe in the Turkish baths in the spa town of Harrogate
* Scuba dive with basking sharks off the Cornish coast
* Coasteering in Cornwall